1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a user interface for monitoring and controlling a rotating platform comprising multiple animal stalls. In particular, the present invention relates to the control and monitoring of dairy milking operations in an installation comprising multiple milking stalls on a rotating platform.
The keeping of animals in installations in an industrial establishment has been transformed by the advent and expanded use of information technology. As a consequence, the control of animal related processes has developed such that a great many parameters relating to equipment can be controlled accurately and rapidly. In addition, the amount of information which is gathered concerning individual animals and parameters relating to their management has greatly increased. It has thereby resulted that control and management systems have become increasingly complex, both in terms of the variety of information which is handled and in terms of the number of variables which can be controlled.
On the other hand, certain aspects of animal management retain a great deal in common with traditional practices, especially concerning the physical environment and concerning the animals themselves. For those individuals who work within an animal management installation and whose task it is to operate animal management systems, there is a need to enable the monitoring and control of operations using sophisticated equipment even while providing a control system which is easy to use and easy to learn and which is amenable and effective for use in a technology unfriendly environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
In patent application number WO 01/17336, there is disclosed a graphical user interface for the monitoring and controlling of parts of a dairy farm system. An exemplary embodiment which is disclosed in WO 01/17336 concerns the graphical representation of animal teats in a spatial relationship which corresponds schematically to the actual spatial arrangement of the teats. Another embodiment illustrates the positioning of control symbols or icons for certain elements in a milking installation such as gate opening/closing controls and manger positioning controls. The examples which are discussed all relate to a milking operation which is being carried out on an animal at a single location.
In milking installations which comprise rotary milking platforms with animal milking stations located about the platform periphery, multiple milking operations take place at one time. An example of a milking platform with animal stalls at its periphery and comprising a control system is disclosed in WO 2009/093967. Each milking operation on a platform typically starts and finishes at times which are staggered from the start or finish times of other milking operations on the same platform. Some milking platforms are large, and can thereby accommodate a large number of simultaneously occurring milking operations. Animals may be able to voluntarily access the platform and, having accessed the platform, they may or may not be permitted to be milked. Animals may receive feed, and any feed which animals are given may be provided in varying types or quantities, depending on the animal's needs. Leaving the platform may be obligatory or voluntary, and may take place at one or more designated locations. Some animals will yield more milk than others and some animals will be milked more quickly than others. The previously suggested solutions for creating input/output controls for animals being milked in individual stalls would lead, in the case of a rotary stall, to an information overload for operators. It is an object of the present invention to provide an input/output control system which allows simple, efficient and reliable monitoring and control of a rotary milking platform.